Groundwater Awareness Week

Life as we know it would be impossible without groundwater. It is the world's most extracted natural resource, and it supports our ecosystems. Don't take groundwater for granted. Pay it forward during National Groundwater Awareness Week, March 10-16,
2019, by letting others know the importance of groundwater and asking them to pass it along.

GWAW provides an opportunity for people to learn about the importance of groundwater and how the resource impacts lives. Your involvement and passion during the week is what makes GWAW so successful, and we have put together social media graphics to share.

Top 10 Facts About Groundwater Use

Only 1 percent of the water on Earth is useable, 99 percent of which is groundwater.

The United States uses 349 billion gallons of freshwater every day.

Groundwater is 20 to 30 times larger than all U.S. lakes, streams, and rivers combined.

Groundwater accounts for 33 percent of all the water used by U.S. municipalities.

44 percent of the U.S. population depends on groundwater for its drinking water supply.

More than 13.2 million households have their own well, representing 34 million people.

53.5 billion gallons of groundwater are used for agricultural irrigation each day. In 1990 that number was 2.2 billion.

The largest U.S. aquifer is Ogallala, underlying 250,000 square miles stretching from Texas to South Dakota. Scientists estimate it could take 6000 years to naturally refill the aquifer if it were ever fully depleted.

California pumps 10.7 billion gallons of groundwater each day, a third more than the second-highest state, Texas.

Groundwater is the world’s most extracted raw material with withdrawal rates in the estimated range of 259 trillion gallons per year.

Top Groundwater Myths

Groundwater migrates thousands of miles.

Groundwater removed from the Earth is never returned.

Groundwater is not a significant source of water supply.

Groundwater is abundantly available, therefore does not need to be conserved.